Sodano and the new world order

The cardinals, after their first vote, now know some things clearly that they did not know before the vote: they know who are some of the actual, not theorized, candidates, and something about how much support they have

So, this knowledge will have been affecting their thinking, perhaps, this evening  and it will affect their thinking tomorrow, when four votes are scheduled

The day began with sun, then hail, then rain and thunder, then a cold drizzle.

In late afternoon, I was invited to speak on Fox News. Here is a link to what I said: TheMoynihanReport.com

It was a frustrating experience, in some ways. One would like to say many things, and there is only a small amount of time

Anyway, this evening, I was not going to send out a letter, and then, reading the Italian press, I came across an odd little item, which caught my attention.

Devil in details

I am always interested in little details like this. As they say, the devil is in the details.

Ok, here is the story.

Below is a link to a website where I read a curious comment from a reader.

The reader says that the official text of the homily of Cardinal Sodano today is incorrect, in that it omits two words that Sodano actually spoke when he gave the homily.

What were those two words? The commenter says they were: world order (ordine mondiale).

["Strange, the official text of the homily of Cardinal Sodano does not correspond to what he said in the Basilica, and what I myself heard, the words 'world order,' which moreover struck me and left me terrified, have disappeared."]

In other words, writing his article, this journalist had quoted Sodanos speech with those two words included  even though those words are not in the official text distributed by the Vatican. He did this, evidently, because he heard the words. Here is a link to that report: http://www.tmnews.it/web/sezioni/top10/20130312_120746.shtml

In this video below, the English voice-over does not include the world order  evidently because the voice-over is based on the written text, not on the actual words spoken by Sodano. This suggests that the two words were added by Sodano a braccio, that is, on the spot, off the cuff, extemporaneously  they were not in his prepared text. This occurs at about 13:48 in the video. (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbri4r9jZQU)

The same thing is true of the following video, with a German voice-over. Sodano uses the words at about 17:19 of the video, but the German translator does not translate them. Evidently he too was using the prepared text. Here is the link: http://it.gloria.tv/?media=412846.

Cardinal Sodano is a catastrophe waiting to happen

Dr William Oddie is a leading English Catholic writer and broadcaster. He edited The Catholic Herald from 1998 to 2004 and is the author of The Roman Option and Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy. >

Most accounts of Cardinal Schönborns recent wigging by the Pope for his criticism of Cardinal Angelo Sodano (for calling accusations of clerical child abuse petty gossip) tended to deflect attention from the fact that Sodano himself did not escape criticism. However wrong Cardinal Schönborn may have been to make his criticisms to journalists and not to the authorities in Rome, the fact is that he was dead right about Sodano. The wording of the Vaticans press release made his real mistake clear: when accusations are made against a cardinal, specified the statement, competency falls exclusively to the Pope. After Cardinal Schönborn clarified his own remarks, Cardinal Sodano was made to do the same: The word chiacchiericcio [gossip] was erroneously interpreted [hum, hum] as disrespectful to the victims of sexual abuse, towards whom Cardinal Angelo Sodano nourishes the same feelings of compassion as the Holy Father.

I think not. Cardinal Sodano appears to have an exceptionally sinister record of shielding abusers, particularly eminent ones, which goes back many years. He blocked a 1995 investigation into subsequently proven accusations of child abuse against Schönborns predecessor as Archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groër. The most shameful episode was his consistent defence over decades of Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ. And, according to reports in the National Catholic Reporter, he had his reasons: he stands accused of receiving a great deal of money and other benefits from the Legion of Christ. In 1998, according to reports, Sodano halted investigations into sexual abuse by Maciel then being carried out by the CDF. One of Pope Benedicts first actions was to depose Maciel and forbid him to function as a priest.

Cardinal Sodanos continuing danger to the Church comes from the fact that he is still Dean of the College of Cardinals. This means that if the Pope were to die before he can be removed, Sodano will be in charge of the obsequies (he will preach the panegyric) and of the conclave: and the international press will have a field day, with millions of column inches about his alleged support for child abusers, his corruption and his sheer incompetence. This is a disaster which must not be allowed to happen. Sodano must go, soon.

ROME, March 12, 2013  The waiting time is drawing to a close. This afternoon, the cardinals will have their first ballot. Starting last Wednesday, the cardinals agreed that their discussions will be continued under greater secrecy. This means that we are left to examine the evidence and facts we already know to piece together, if not the outcome of the conclave, then at least the issues looming in the minds of the cardinal electors.

On that day it was announced that the press conferences organised at the Pontifical North American College, up the hill from St. Peters, where US cardinals were giving politely evasive and non-specific non-information to US and British journalists, had been cancelled. It came out that the reason was that some Italian cardinals, whose interpretation of the oath of secrecy was a little more, shall we say, flexible, were giving Italian journalists what amounted to transcripts of the meetings.

And there we have in a nutshell a hint as to how the Vatican administration works at the highest levels: chaotically, with no very strong connections to reality.

As always, the official line about the substance of the cardinals discussions is slightly at odds with the quiet, unofficial but much more frank assessments coming off the record. Officially we are told that the most important issue for the cardinals is the New Evangelisation (always capitalised). This favourite buzzword among Catholic prelates and writers of press releases, means the attempt to reach out to the majority of Catholics in the dechristianised west who no longer practice their faith, or even know much about it.

Of course, what is not mentioned is that the reality is that the loss of faith has been largely a product of the failure of the men running the Church in the last 50 years to teach anyone anything about it. There is a line in the old Baltimore Catechism: our purpose in life is to know God, to love Him and serve Him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next. Take careful note of the order given. We cannot love what we do not know. Knowing comes first. Can it be surprising to the cardinals gathered here that, the Church on the whole having refused to teach the Faith in the last 40 years that Catholics dont know Him, arent interested in serving Him in this life, or have any hope of happiness in the next?

Another unpleasant piece of reality that wont get mentioned at the official press briefings, is that we know the origins of the corruption in the Vatican. One blessing of the Vatileaks affair is that at least officials are no longer trying to pretend that everything inside is just fine. But it is still being treated as a strange and inexplicable anomaly, unconnected to anything else. Officially we are still being asked to pretend that no one really understands where all the filth came from.

But it is perfectly clear, even to some in the mainstream secular media: the anti-Christian dogmas that have seeped into the Church, that Paul VI called the smoke of Satan, have created a moral corruption so entrenched in the upper management of the Catholic Church that it has created crippling administrative chaos. The Vatileaks affair has exposed the depth of the moral and organisational rot.

I find that I am not cheerful at the prospect of a new pope. It is difficult to be confident that the men of the conclave are capable of facing these awful truths. The truths of the crises of belief, of vocations to the clergy and religious life, of sexual continence among priests, of the abandonment of Catholicity in academia and schools, the ideological warping and collapse of the religious orders, the abandonment of religious purpose by Catholic charities, the financial and sexual corruption of the Vatican bureaucracy. Ultimately the whole catastrophe of the global collapse of Catholic order, discipline and culture, and the growth of a hostile and aggressive secularism and the dictatorship of relativism in the outside world, that Pope Benedict was warning about from his first day to his last, has been their own doing.

Our current calamity in the Church, and much of that of the secular world, was produced by a hierarchy and clergy who, starting about 1965, decided that it was more important to go with the flow of the world than to continue the uncomfortable and difficult work of directing it toward salvation. For decades, many of the men sitting in those plush chairs in the Paul VI Audience Hall last week have variously either failed to expunge the anti-Christian dogmas that infiltrated the Church or were themselves the ones pushing them. One can always hope  in fact one is obliged to  but, judging from their comments to the press, those men dont seem to me to be in a mood to face up to these uncomfortable realities.

In his column on Friday for the far-left National Catholic Reporter, the well-informed liberal commentator and Vatican watcher John Allen said, Privately, some cardinals feel that if Benedict XVI had better administrative support, he might not have felt compelled to resign.

Speaking on background, Allen continued, one cardinal told NCR on Tuesday that he had raised the question in the General Congregation meetings of whether the cardinals had done enough to help Benedict  by which he meant, in part, pressuring the popes support team to get their act together.

This is something that the Catholic faithful have been asking for decades. Why do we all know what is wrong in the Church, and they still dont? We would also dearly love to see the hierarchy get their act together.

Can any Catholics be left, whether liberal or conservative or traditionalist who still trust that the men inside the walls have the will to do what is best, or even what they may think is best for the Church? How many of us now have any confidence that they know what the priorities must be, or that they remember that the first and last aim is the salvation of souls?

I read last night another of the daily letters by an American Vaticanista, Robert Moynihan, the editor of Inside the Vatican. He related a conversation he had with an anonymous cardinal who also seemed deeply troubled by Pope Benedicts abdication. I was relieved to see that this cardinal, whoever he was, also seemed to understand, and perhaps shares the terrible sense of foreboding that has filled me and many others since this whole thing began. Seeing the mans disquiet, Moynihan asked him what we could all do for them.

 A look passed over his eyes which seemed filled with shadows and concerns. I was surprised at his intensity He squeezed my hand.

Over the past few months, Cardinal Angelo Sodano has faced a number of serious allegations in the media, most especially regarding his connections with the disgraced founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado.

The controversies prompted leaders, both in the traditionally orthodox and heterodox sectors of the Catholic press, to call for Sodanos resignation as dean of the College of Cardinals. In a May 12 editorial in First Things, the publications editor, Joseph Bottum, wrote that Cardinal Sodano has to go, as he has been found too often on the edges of scandal. Never quite charged, never quite blamed, he has had his name in too long a series of depositions and court records and news accountsan ongoing embarrassment to the Church he serves, Bottum wrote.

He lamented that the cardinal, 82, should be plagued by scandal at end of his life, saying it would be kinder to protect the man and let him slip away unnoticed. But after explaining some of the allegations against Sodano, Bottum concluded that even such a figure as the cardinal has to be removed from his current position and told to serve the Church in prayer. Everyone inside the Church needs to be taught that there are consequences for scandalous mistakes, Bottum wrote.

Many of the allegations against Sodano had been made by Jason Berry, the investigative reporter who disclosed his findings in the National Catholic Reporter, most recently in a long two-part exposé of the Maciel scandal published in April this year. Unsurprisingly, Berry too believes Cardinal Sodano should step down and considers him clearly guilty of a number of unjust and corrupt actions. I dont think Benedict can salvage his papacy in the eyes of the world unless he gets rid of Sodano, Berry told CWR, and I dont say that with any personal agenda against the Pope.

So what are these damaging allegations against the cardinal who for 16 years served as Vatican secretary of state? Arguably, the two most serious cases involve his dealings with Father Maciel and his blocking of an investigation into Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, the late archbishop of Vienna, who was found guilty of sexually abusing children in 1998.

SODANO AND MACIEL

Regarding Father Maciel, Cardinal Sodano is accused of taking substantial amounts of money in order to help the Legion ingratiate itself with the Vatican. This allegedly led Sodano to hinder investigations into Maciel, beginning in 1998 when ex-Legion victims filed a canonical case against Maciel with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to Berry, Cardinal Sodano pressured Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the congregations prefect, to halt the proceedings.

Drawing on sources close to the Legion, Berry alleges that Cardinal Sodano had been wined and dined by the Legion throughout his career as secretary of state, often visiting the orders headquarters in Mexico City to celebrate major events. He was described as a major cheerleader for Maciels order by one source, who alleged that Sodano was willing to give a talk to the Legion at Christmas for $10,000. Another priest said he recalled Sodano receiving a $5,000 donation.

It was like a business arrangement. He was on the payroll, so to speak, Berry told CWR. You have to bear in mind that the Legionaries had become part of the Vaticans ecclesiastical structure. This wasnt an accidental development, according to Berry, but a highly calculated strategy to ground the order in the religious infrastructure of the Church in Rome. He said this led to Maciel building a Legionary university campus in Romethe Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorumwith the vital help of Cardinal Sodano.

Cardinal Sodano, originally from Piedmont, Italy, served as apostolic nuncio to Chile from 1977 to 1988. During that time, he became friends with Maciel and was friendly with the countrys dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. He used his political clout to help the Legion be admitted into Chile, despite strong opposition from several Chilean bishops, including the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez.

By 1989, Berry says Sodano, then a senior official in the Roman Curia, was already an honored guest at Legion dinners and banquets and had become Maciels biggest supporter. One of his tasks was to help fulfill Maciels wish to build the Regina Apostolorum. Berry quotes Glenn Favreau, a Washington, DC attorney and former Legionary in Rome, who said that Sodano intervened with Italian officials to get zoning variances to build the university on a wooded plateau of western Rome.

Maciel hired Sodanos nephew, Andrea Sodano, as a building consultant, Berry wrote, but Legionaries overseeing the project complained to Maciel that Andrea Sodanos work was late and poorly done; they were reluctant to pay his invoices. To them, Maciel yelled: Pay him! You pay him! Andrea Sodano was paid.

SODANO AND FOLLIERI

Further questions surround Cardinal Sodanos links with his nephew and in particular the nephews business associate, Raffaello Follieri, a property developer. Follieri was jailed in New York on fraud and money-laundering charges in 2008. A major part of his business involved the buying up of Church properties and parishes, many of which had been put on the market to pay for lawsuits from sexual abuse victims, and then reselling them.

Andrea Sodano was Follieri Groups vice president. Press reports record Cardinal Sodano attending the companys 2004 launch party in New York, and the firm trumpeted its deep commitment to the Catholic Church and its long-standing relationship with senior members of the Vatican hierarchy.

Follieri was later to misappropriate millions of dollars of investment capital from billionaire Ronald Burkle that was meant to buy up churches in the United States. But before then, soon after a series of investigative reports and two months prior to the Vatican banishing Father Maciel from public life in 2006, Cardinal Sodano sent a letter of complaint to Follieri.

In the missive, he wrote: I feel it is my duty to tell you how perturbed I am to hear that your company continues to present itself as having ties to the Vatican, due to the fact that my nephew, Andrea, has agreed on some occasion to provide you with professional consulting services. I do not know how this distressing misunderstanding could have occurred, but it is necessary now to avoid such confusion in the future. I do, therefore, appeal to your sensibility to be careful with respect to this matter. I shall accordingly inform my nephew Andrea as well as anyone else who has asked me for information regarding your firm. I take this opportunity to send you my regards.

On October 23, 2008, Follieri pleaded guilty to 14 counts of wire fraud, money- laundering, and conspiracy, and is now serving 54 months in a federal prison. FBI agent Theodore Cacioppi told Berry that Andrea Sodanos company took in fraudulently earned money and that the Bureau considered him and some of his associates unindicted co-conspirators.

Andrea Sodano was safely back in Italy at the time of Follieris arrest, and the FBI didnt think it worth spending resources investigating him. But Berry reported on the government document that accuses Andrea Sodano of receiving payments, and also says that the Vatican itself received donations from Follieris scam.

The government sentencing memorandum on Follieri, filed by the US Attorney, Southern District of New York, stated: Follieri created the false impressions that he had ties to the Vatican, which enabled him to obtain church properties at below-market values, through his relationship with Andrea Sodano, the nephew (Nephew) of the then-Secretary of State of the Vatican Cardinal Angelo Sodano and making unauthorized donations to the Vatican with investor money. Follieri misused investor funds to pay the Nephew for engineering services that the Nephew never performed so that the Nephew could travel with Follieri when visiting church officials and help Follieri obtain access to the grounds of the Vatican. It was through this connection that Follieri was able to attend one of the Popes services and, along with many others, get his picture taken with the Pope show the private gardens of the Vatican to Follieris friends and associates, and arrange for guided tours of a museum at the Vatican.

The sentencing memorandum continued: Follieri also falsely represented that he needed over $800,000 to pay for the engineering reports prepared by the Nephew. Follieri claimed that the Vatican needed to review these engineering reports before the Vatican could make any decision about whether to sell the properties to Follieri.

Berry believes Cardinal Sodano had long been aware of his nephews dubious connections with Follieri. Its pretty clear he knew Follieri was a cash cow for Andrea Sodano and Msgr. [Giovanni] Carru [undersecretary at the Congregation for Clergy], he said, although there appears to be no evidence at all to directly implicate Cardinal Sodano in any of Follieris crimes. Berry, however, is disturbed by Sodanos sense of amorality. What is most striking about Cardinal Sodanos letter is that hes not saying cease or desist. Hes not expressing moral outrage. Hes telling him to be careful, he said.

Up until this time, Maciel was busy trying to further ingratiate himself with the Vatican, offering gifts to Vatican officials to achieve his aims, one of which was to turn the Regina Apostolorum into a bona fide pontifical university. Many senior officials, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, refused to accept such gifts, but others didnt. Cardinal Sodano is only on record as having accepted up to $15,000 as a gift from the Legion, but some sources believe he took more.

Although under canon law (no. 1302), Vatican officials, including cardinals, are obliged to report financial gifts to the cardinal-vicar of Rome, its not clear whether Cardinal Sodano considered himself bound by the same rule. Vatican officials arent supposed to receive personal financial gifts for themselves, but they can act as channels for their own charities, said one source close to the Vatican. So if someone gives an official money and they give it to a charity, thats OK, it doesnt need to be reported.

But this source said it was unclear to whom other gifts should be declared, and whether Cardinal Sodano needed to report to anyone else. I dont think he was answerable to anyone, he said, adding there should really be a clearer procedure to follow.

But the alleged scandals surrounding Cardinal Sodano and Father Maciel go beyond just the financial. In 2004, the Vatican sent Msgr. Charles Scicluna, an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to Mexico to investigate the Legion. After Scicluna returned from one of his trips in 2005, just after the conclave that elected Cardinal Ratzinger pope, a communiqué was sent to the Legion from Cardinal Sodanos office saying there is no canonical procedure in course nor is one foreseen for the future with regard to Father Maciel. The communiqué was given without consulting the CDF. The Legion took that statement and put a spin on it to say Father Maciel had been exonerated, said Berry. In fact nothing of the sort had occurred. The Holy See press office likewise sided with the secretary of state (it had no choice under the circumstances), and said there was not to be a canonical procedure.

In 2006, Cardinal Sodano helped minimize harm caused to the Legions name and structure. Although the Vatican ordered Maciel to refrain from all public ministries and to adopt a life of prayer and penitence, the Vatican statement continued to praise the Legion and Regnum Christi (the Legions lay movement) despite the misinformation campaign the Legion was running against the victims. The statement allowed the Legionaries to spin the news, leading to their own communiqué saying that Maciel had accepted the Vaticans decision with faith, complete serenity and tranquility of conscience, knowing that it is a new cross that God, the Father of Mercy, has allowed him to suffer. Berry said he has it on good authority that Sodanos fingerprints were all over that [Vatican] statement.

SODANO AND THE ABUSE SCANDAL

This wasnt the first time that Cardinal Sodano had interfered with an investigation. In May of this year, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, hinted that the former secretary of state had a history of mishandling abuse scandals. Speaking off the record to Austrian journalists, he said that in 1995, the future Pope Benedict pushed for a probe into abuse allegations against Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër but that Cardinal Sodano resisted the probe.

A month earlier, Cardinal Schönborn had told the New York Times that Cardinal Ratzinger had called for an investigation of Cardinal Groër, who served as archbishop of Vienna from 1986 to 1995, but that the other side, the diplomatic side, had prevailed. Cardinal Groër eventually relinquished all his ecclesiastical titles in 1998, at the request of Pope John Paul II, as mounting evidence of sexual abuse emerged. What makes these allegations against Sodano serious is the extent to which his actions (in 1998, 2004, and 2006 with regards to Father Maciel, and in 1995 concerning Cardinal Groër) obstructed investigations and led to further injustices being perpetrated.

Sodanos image of showing inadequate concern for the victims of sexual abuse by clergy was not helped on Easter Sunday of this year, when he issued what many saw as a bizarre tribute to the Holy Father in the face of a media onslaught on the Church over the sexual abuse crisis.

In an unscheduled statement, Cardinal Sodano referred to the criticism of the Popes handling of the abuse issue as petty gossip. Cardinal Schönborn, in that same meeting with Austrian journalists, said Sodano had deeply wronged the victims of sexual abuse by downplaying the importance of the issue. Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, called them certainly not the wisest of words and made it clear that Benedict XVI had never asked for such a tribute.

For Berry, Sodanos gesture wasnt bizarre but breathtaking in its arrogance and entirely in keeping with his character. If you stand back with a wide angle lens, Sodano has always been a realpolitik figure within the Vatican, he explained. He negotiated with Noriega to get him out of [the] nunciature to go to Florida, where he was assured to go to prison; he was close to Pinochet. I think Sodano has a Machiavellian attitude about power . I cant speak about his psychodynamics, but his public behavior certainly suggests a man in a Machiavellian role who is functioning within a monarchical power structure and knows he is the highest prince under the Pope. Others see Sodano not so much as Machiavellian but as a certain kind of Italian stereotype someone shrewd, wily, and shameless about nepotism.

A CULTURE OF NO ACCOUNT - ABILITY

Despite all the allegations swirling around him, Cardinal Sodano refuses to share his side of the story. When CWR contacted his office, we were told he was too tired and busy traveling to answer our requests for an interview. No officials, including those in the Holy See press office, were willing to step forward and defend him.

Berry, who also tried unsuccessfully for an interview, was unsurprised at his reluctance. How does someone in his position explain some of the things he has done? he asked.

One senior official, aware of these interview requests, said that the cardinal was unwilling to take his cue from the media. He also said that in the coming weeks, matters will go some way to being resolved, although he wouldnt say how and ruled out Sodanos resignation. Some speculate that he may have been referring to the expected Vatican guidelines to bishops on how to handle sexual abuse cases. The official also said he believed some of the allegations against Sodano were groundless, but didnt give details.

Berry, however, stands full-square behind his revelations about Sodano, discovered in his research on the Legion. I wouldnt have written a book with [Gerald] Renner, made a film, and written all those articles if I didnt believe in them, he said. I dont want to say weve been vindicated, but we have been abundantly confirmed in our accuracy.

But if the allegations are all true, many are mystified by the lack of consequences. Even under a pope with such a keen sense of justice as Benedict XVI, critics say the Vatican continues to perpetuate a culture of no accountability for wrong actions, leading to an absence of even the appearance of justice. Mysteriously, they say, the Pope appears unable or even unwilling to bring Cardinal Sodano to account. Instead he continues to support the dean of the College of Cardinals, and has even stepped up Sodanos role, sending him to represent the papacy at a number of high-profile events, the latest being the Eucharistic Congress in Toledo, Spain. A close friend of Benedict XVI said the Pope told him at a recent dinner that he was particularly upset at Cardinal Schönborns public criticisms of Cardinal Sodano.

Yet many others are glad Schönbornsaid what he did, as the allegations areserious and need to be fully examined. Joseph Bottum, in his May 12 article for First Things, described Berrys April exposé on the Legion as fumbling journalism and thinly sourced when it came to uncovering financial deals in Rome. But he felt Berrys allegations were nevertheless fumbling toward what seems to be the truth.

The widespread hope is that Cardinal Sodano will come clean, thereby helping the purification of the Church and enabling healing to begin.

As Benedict XVI said on his way to Fatima in May, the Church has a deep need to re-learn penance, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness but also the need for justice.

Yes. I don’t KNOW for sure, but I suspect that, as that article suggests, Cardinal Sodano is a corrupt insider, a Macchiavellian, a guy who thinks that insider Italians should run the Church, rather than a member of a gay, liberal Mafia that crept into the Church. He is corrupt, too, but they are two different kinds of corruption.

FWIW, I recall that the Legionaries of Christ were generally thought of as a very conservative and faithfully Catholic organization. Fr. Maciel was not the typical liberal, dissenting child molester. He pretended to be something that he was not, and managed to hide what he was from most of his followers, from what I have seen, although when he was outed the evil that was revealed was so great that it seems to have pretty much destroyed the organization as a going concern.

I don’t think Sodano covered it up because he approved of gay priests, but because it was convenient politically for his position of power.

Furthermore Sodano did everything in his power to bury the messages of Fatima and make them into something that applied only to the past, something of historical note only. Pope Benedict XVI finally put Sodano's spin on Fatima to rest when he gave the interview on the plane on his way to visit Fatima in 2010:

"Consequently, I would say that, here too, beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first place refer to Pope John Paul II, an indication is given of realities involving the future of the Church, which are gradually taking shape and becoming evident. So it is true that, in addition to moment indicated in the vision, there is mention of, there is seen, the need for a passion of the Church, which naturally is reflected in the person of the Pope, yet the Pope stands for the Church and thus it is sufferings of the Church that are announced. The Lord told us that the Church would constantly be suffering, in different ways, until the end of the world. The important thing is that the message, the response of Fatima, in substance is not directed to particular devotions, but precisely to the fundamental response, that is, to ongoing conversion, penance, prayer, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. Thus we see here the true, fundamental response which the Church must give  which we, every one of us, must give in this situation. As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church."

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